Barack Obama to Prince Harry: 'I wake up later'

Former President Barack Obama told Prince Harry in an interview broadcast Wednesday that those in leadership roles must recognize that the people they are supposed to be serving "are not abstractions." (Dec. 26)
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In this undated handout photo released by Kensington Palace, courtesy of the Obama Foundation, Prince Harry interviews former President Barack Obama as part of his guest editorship of BBC Radio 4's Today program.(Photo: Handout, Kensington Palace via Getty Imag)

“I wake up later," said former president Barack Obama of what’s different about his mornings now.

"It’s wonderful to be able to control your day in a way that you just can’t as president."

Obama was speaking to Britain's Prince Harry during the Invictus Games in Toronto in September for BBC Radio 4's Today program, which Harry guest-edited. The interview aired Wednesday.

When asked if he felt relief after finishing what's arguably the world's toughest job, Obama said: “Relief probably isn’t the right phrase because relief indicates that I can’t wait until this thing is finished. But I think that there was a sense that we had run a good race."

“But the things that are important to me haven’t changed," he added. "I still care about making sure that the United States and the world is a place where kids get a decent education, where people who are willing to work hard are able to find a job that pays a living wage."

“Although I don’t have the same tools that I had as president, I have to rely more on persuasion than legislation … a lot of the things that still motivate and move me continue to this day. “

Obama told Harry there are some things he misses about the job.

“I miss my team. Everything you do every day you know can affect millions and billions of people in some cases and to have really smart, focused people who are there for the right reasons and who over time have built up trust and have learned to support each other, rely on each other, I miss that," he said.

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Reports say UK government officials are asking Prince Harry and Meghan Markle not to snub Donald Trump in favor of inviting Barack Obama to their wedding.
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“I miss the work itself because it was fascinating and rewarding and you knew that even if the politics of a certain issue didn’t always work out well that by doing a good job there was somebody out there … maybe a mother who was worried about a sick child and now had a doctor or your ability to protect some people from those who would do them harm."

He also warned about the dangers of the internet and said leaders must be careful in their use of social media. He did not mention his successor, President Trump, who is prolific on Twitter.

"All of us in leadership have to find ways to recreate a common space on the internet,” he said.

"One of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities. They can be cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases.

"The question has to do with how do we harness this technology in a way that allows a multiplicity of voices, allows a diversity of views, but doesn't lead to a Balkanisation of society and allows ways of finding common ground."